Dr Cameron Webb has spent the last 20 summers sloshing about in gumboots and chasing mosquitoes around the wetlands of Australia. He is a Principal Hospital Scientist in Medical Entomology (NSW Health Pathology), Clinical Lecturer (Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity (MBI), University of Sydney), Senior Investigator (Centre for Infectious Diseases & Microbiology Public Health) and Academic Leader (Research Education) (Sydney Medical School Westmead, University of Sydney). He provides advice to local, state and government agencies on the management of mosquitoes with a particular interest in balancing the need for wetland wildlife conservation while minimising the pest and public health risks associated with mosquitoes.

Dr Webb recently wrote about the increase in mosquitoes, that some people in the New England may also have noticed. With permission, his story appears below:

Do you think mosquitoes are bad at your place? Well, this week I broke the state record for the number of mosquitoes collected in a single trap as part of the NSW Arbovirus Surveillance Program. We’d normally be expecting to collect hundreds, sometimes thousands of mosquitoes at this time of year. However, thanks to recent rainfall creating perfect conditions for mosquitoes, populations have exploded. The previous record was about 17,000 mosquitoes…this week we collected 26,767 bloodsuckers! I cannot describe to you how uncomfortable it was setting and collecting this trap. The second record I broke today was “most mosquitoes inhaled by an entomologist”…